Burning Alive
by Ebenbild
Summary: "There aren't a lot of legends in the wizarding world," Moody's father once had told him. "And even less that are so known that just calling its name will lead to fear in the hearts of evil." But what help is a legend when you're fighting for the life of a town? Moody doesn't believe in legends, so to him, a legend is no help at all, is it? Could be really cool canon. xD


_**Disclaimer**_ _: I'm too young to be Rowling so there is sadly no way Harry Potter is mine…_

 _ **Placing:** Somewhen between Lily and James' seventh year and their marriage/ Harry's conception_ _._

 ** _Information_** ** _:_** _I don't use OC's if I don't have to, so not one OC in this story._

 _Challenge: 'Prompt of the day'. Prompt_ _: (_ _word)_ Burning alive _.2000_ _words_ _._ _Gryffindor_ _,_ _Hogwarts_ _._

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sSsSsSsSs

 _ **BURNING ALIVE**_

sSs

" _I took His symbol of Death and made it a shining beacon of light in the muggle world."_

– Henry Dunant, squib and founder of 'Red Cross'

 _sSs_

The town was burning. There were screams, cries, and the moaning of the dying. There were houses covered in flames, lightening up the night sky and adding to the fear spreading throughout the crowd. The firemen were trying to get to the flames to put them out, but masked men in robes were all too eager to destroy their engines or kill the men who tried to safe others.

Evil laughter could be heard over the creaking of the burning houses. Its echo mixing with the ashes spreading through the air and the smoke.

It was an eerie sight to see.

"Let's move forward," one of the men and women that had arrived just moments before just at the outside of the town said. "We're here to stop them. Let's stop them!"

"Don't be too eager, laddy," another one of them objected. He was older, scarred and was missing an eye and a huge chunk of his nose. "These are Death Eaters. If we aren't careful, we might not come out of this fight alive."

"But they are destroying this town, killing everybody they meet!" A young woman replied heatedly. "If we wait and do nothing, we're not better than all those people who denied that You-Know-Who's getting worse for over a year, Mad-Eye!"

The scarred man, Mad-Eye, turned his face to stare at her coolly while his other, magical eye was scanning the scene they had stumbled upon.

"I don't told you to sit by and watch," he said coolly. "I told you to be careful. We're far too few to take it up one-by-one with the Death Eaters. This is war, girl, not some kind of schoolyard scuffle!"

The girl's eyes narrowed at that.

"I'm quite aware of that, Moody," she said. "If you have forgotten already: My parents were killed by them. Believe me that showed me more than enough that this is war and that we don't have to expect any kind of mercy from them! Nevertheless we have to act now – before they kill off the rest of the town!"

Mad-Eye Moody nodded at that.

"Aye, girl," he said before turning to the three young men. "Potter," he barked. "You and Evans take the left side of the town. Activate your communication the moment you leave from here. No mercy. I don't care what Albus says. No stunners. Bring them down hard, bring them down fast. No heroics, no playing around, understood?"

One of the men and the young woman nodded and then vanished into the shadows to do as he said. Both of their faces were grim, and Moody knew that whatever else those two were, they were actually capable and willing to follow his orders.

"Black, Prewett, you take the right side. Same instructions like Potter and Evans. I take on the middle and ensure a distraction so that those bastards don't notice that they're rounded up from all sides."

The other two men shared a glance. One of them nodded, but the other seemed to be reluctant.

It was then that Prewett spoke up.

"Moody," he said hesitatingly. "There might be better ways to take on those Death Eaters, without you endangering yourself."

Moody just waved him off.

"Whatever," he said. "This is the best we can do now. Don't you dare to disobey orders, Prewett!"

The man stared at him darkly, his blue eyes shining oddly green in the light of the fire, but in the end he relented.

"Just note that I don't like the idea at all," he said, then he followed Sirius Black to their position.

Moody sighed and the crept into the town, hiding behind an invisibility spell and in the shadows of the burning buildings.

The first Death Eater he met, found himself at the odd side of his wand before he even noticed Moody approaching. Moody didn't even spare a look at the downed man, but he had to grit his teeth when he saw the downed man's victims. He turned away from them. There was nothing he could do for them anymore.

For a moment, he closed his eyes and simply breathed, then he stalked on, now filled with the feeling of uttermost fury.

The whole town looked like a battlefield. Burning and destroyed buildings lined streets full of rubble and turned over or destroyed vehicles. An ambulance was standing aslant the street, its red cross painted even redder with the blood of its driver.

The sight of the cross send Moody down a memory lane.

"There aren't a lot of legends in the wizarding world," Moody's father once had told him. "And even less that are so known that just calling its name will lead to fear in the hearts of evil."

Back then, Moody had been a little boy, believing every word his father told him.

"What legends?" Little Moody had asked interestedly, and his father had smiled and answered.

"Legends like Merlin, like the Founders, and maybe like Albus Dumbledore will once be," he said. "But also legends of a far darker nature."

And when Moody had frowned, his father had looked at him seriously.

"Legends like Red Death," he said. "It says that if you call out to him in your direst hour, he will come and help you. A man clothed in shadow, left-handed and adorned with blood, bearing the sign of a red cross on a white ground."

Moody shook his head and returned from memory lane. He definitely had other things to do than muse over childhood legends.

"Stand us by in this hour, because alone, we might not survive," he mumbled anyway, feeling odd to talk to a legend he had never believed in before.

He continued forwards, climbing over debris, ignoring the dead on the streets or the sounds of the dying. He had to stop the madness, everything else had to come later.

Finally he reached mid-town and the current battle ground.

At least thirty Death Eaters were herding together the muggles living in the town while laughing cruelly and cursing some of them whenever they felt like.

Moody looked around.

He couldn't actually see the other two groups, but a moment later he could feel his mirror activating.

He pulled it out.

"In position," Lily Evans said.

Moody nodded.

Then another face turned up at the other half of his mirror, dividing it into two parts.

"In position," Fabian Prewett said.

Moody nodded again.

"The moment I start drawing their attention, you remove their hostages. If they see you, take them down hard from both sides, do you understand?" He asked both of them and when they nodded, he ended the mirror-call, hiding it away from where he had taken it from and then stepped out into the open.

He kept himself disillusioned, but didn't try to hide in any other way.

Still, he managed to come surprisingly far – far enough that he could find cover behind an upturned vehicle – without being noticed. Moody had thought that the Death Eaters had at least an intruder-alert up, but it seemed that he had been wrong with that assumption.

Then Moody started his fight.

The first three Death Eaters were down before any of them understood what was going on. Then they came onto him.

From the corner of his eyes he could see the others freeing the hostages and taking them to cover. With the Death Eaters preoccupied, they had an easy time to get away – at least until Voldemort himself showed up.

"Damn," Moody cursed, while again taking cover behind the vehicle. When he dared to look around his cover again, he could see Lily and James engaging the leader of the Death Eaters in a fight while Black and Prewett finished removing the hostages.

"Looks like I have to step up my game as well," Moody grumbled before again launching curses at the Death Eaters. They returned the fire.

Suddenly, Moody found himself flowing through the air and hitting the ground hard.

Debris poked into his back and he was fighting for air.

One of the Death Eaters' spells had hit the vehicle he was hiding behind hard, making it explode and send Moody flying.

He could feel the pain in his right leg, telling him that it was most likely broken. His chest hurt as well, and his hair felt singed.

"Shit," Moody cursed, before finding some other appropriate swear words for his situation. He tried to sit up, but he was still far too dazed to actually be able to do that, and when he finally could see clearly again, he was looking into the masked face of a Death Eater.

"Let's see how tough you are, auror," the Death Eater said nastily, his evil grin audible even through the mask.

Then he fired a spell at Moody.

 _Burning._

 _He was burning alive._

Moody tried to tell himself that it was just an illusion, a trick on his mind, but he couldn't. He could actually feel the non-existing flames licking on his body. He could feel his blood boil, could smell his hair being singed and his lungs being filled with smoke.

"Just… an… illusion," he said out loud, fighting to get the words out.

The Death Eater laughed.

"That won't help you," he said. "You will succumb to the spell anyway."

And Moody knew that the man was right. He could already feel the panic, feel himself loosing the ability to breathe thanks to the non-existing smoke. Just a few minutes more and he would be done for.

Already he could see the edges of his vision greying.

He knew that this was it. Lily and James were still fighting Voldemort, Black and Prewett might have started to fight the Death Eaters, but there were too many for them to reach him in time.

This was his end.

His vision started to flicker.

The Death Eaters laughed.

They laughed, and laughed, and laughed until they suddenly stopped laughing and toppled over, red flowers adorning their black robes.

A black robe, sprinkled with red touched Moody's face while somebody stepped over his prone body. A white mask with a red cross gleamed in the light of the flames. Blue eyes shining oddly green in the fire light inspired fear in the eyes of the enemies. Gloved hands were carrying something akin to a muggle gun and a wand in its left hand.

"Left-handed," Moody thought. "He's always left-handed."

Then he closed his eyes and lost consciousness.

When he woke up again, he was in Hogwarts' hospital wing.

"How are you, my friend?" Albus Dumbledore asked when he saw that Moody was awake. Moody frowned.

"Where is he?" He asked instead, not interested in answering a useless question.

"Where's who, Alastor?" Albus frowned.

"Red Death," Moody said.

Albus frown deepened.

"There is no such a thing like Red Death," he said. "He's a legend, nothing more."

"He was there, Albus," Moody replied. "I saw him!"

The Headmaster just sighed.

"You hit your head hard, Alastor," he said. "Adding to that the spell to induce illusions you were under…"

"He was there, Albus!" Moody objected heatedly. "I. Saw. Him!"

The Headmaster just sighed and shook his head.

"Rest, my friend," he said. "You definitely need it."

And with that, he left.

Moody stared at the closing door darkly.

"He was there," he repeated again stubbornly.

"He was," another voice agreed and Moody's head snapped around to see where the voice was coming from.

Fabian Prewett sat in the bed next to him, his left leg bandaged.

"Fire spell," he said when he followed Moody's gaze. "Should be healed by tomorrow."

"You saw him, too," Moody said, but Fabian shook his head.

"I didn't," he said. "No one from our side but you did."

"But –"

"But I know he exists," Fabian said surely. "My third cousin Arthur Weasley's family keeps a record of his appearances throughout history. Gideon, Arthur and I, we all know that he's real."

"Thanks," Moody said.

"You're welcome," and with that, blue eyes shining oddly green in the morning sun met his gaze.

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 _Just a little idea._

 _Reminder: I didn't use any OC's in this story, they're all HP 'verse. Not one, not even Red Death is OC (well, the name is mine, but the character hiding behind is actually canon and named in the story), promise. Maybe you know who 'he' is? xDDD_

 _Hope you liked it._

 _Ebenbild_


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